Every Live-Action Spider-Man Movie, Ranked from Worst to Best

From studio misfires to superhero masterpieces, every Spider-Man movie has something amazing to say about Peter Parker

For the better part of two decades, live-action Spider-Man movies have managed to reinvent the same beloved character without losing sight of what makes that character so special. Across three actors, three directors, and three wildly different interpretations of New York, Peter Parker has remained one of cinema's most enduring heroes.

Not every Spider-Man movie lands, of course. Some buckle under the weight of a bloated rogues gallery, while others get a little too distracted with franchise-building. Still, even the weakest web-slinging features contain flashes of greatness, whether in Andrew Garfield's endlessly charismatic Spider-Man, Tobey Maguire's heartfelt sincerity as Peter Parker, or Tom Holland's ability to blend both into something uniquely his own.

With Spider-Man: Brand New Day finally swinging into theaters, here's how every live-action Spider-Man movie stacks up, from the forgettable to the spectacular.

9 The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

For all of Andrew Garfield's undeniable charm as Spider-Man, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is the clearest example of a studio losing sight of what makes Peter Parker so compelling. Instead of building on the chemistry of Peter and Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) or exploring the emotional fallout of Peter's choices, the film spends much of its runtime laying the groundwork for a cinematic universe that never fully materialized. Electro (Jamie Foxx) and Green Goblin (Dane DeHaan) compete for screen time, while the lingering mystery surrounding Peter's parents only muddies the story further. Gwen Stacy's tragic fate remains genuinely heartbreaking, and Garfield gives one of the franchise's strongest performances. But none of that is enough to overcome a movie that prioritized world building rather than telling a Spider-Man story.

8 Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)

Following the emotional climax of Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: Far From Home faced the difficult task of proving Peter Parker could stand on his own again. Moving the web-slinger out of Queens and into Europe was a fun change of pace, but it also stripped away some of that NYC neighborhood charm that defines the character. Fortunately, Jake Gyllenhaal's Mysterio steals nearly every scene he's in, delivering one of the MCU's most entertaining villains and one of the franchise's most visually inventive action sequences through his reality-bending illusions. While it never quite captures the grounded feel of Spider-Man's best adventures, it's an enjoyable bridge between Peter's life as an Avenger and the more personal stories that followed.

7 The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

Time has been kind to The Amazing Spider-Man. While Marc Webb's reboot was criticized for arriving so soon after Sam Raimi's trilogy, it's easier to appreciate today just how well Garfield understood the character of Spider-Man himself. His quick wit, athleticism, and constant quips during combat feel lifted straight from the comics. The real shortcomings were never Garfield's performance or even Webb’s directing, but Sony's larger ambitions. Fresh off (500) Days of Summer, Webb brought an emotional sincerity to Peter and Gwen's relationship that remains one of the strongest Spider-film romances, but the studio's obsession with expanding the mythology of its world coupled with a poor script prevented that vision from fully flourishing.

6 Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)

Tom Holland's first solo outing finally let Spider-Man be a teenager again. Rather than racing to another world-ending threat, Homecoming embraces high school awkwardness, academic decathlons, homecoming dances, and neighborhood crime-fighting. Michael Keaton's Adrian Toomes/Vulture quickly established himself as one of Marvel's best villains because his motivations feel surprisingly grounded, and the now-iconic car ride to the homecoming dance remains one of the MCU's most suspenseful scenes. More important, Homecoming proved Holland could carry the web-slinger on his own, blending Peter Parker's earnestness with Spider-Man's confidence better than any actor before him.

5 Spider-Man 3 (2007)

Spider-Man 3 has become synonymous with dancing Peter Parker and internet memes, but there's a far more interesting movie buried beneath its crowded script. Raimi's darker take on Peter, influenced by the Venom symbiote, explores how power can corrupt even the most selfless heroes, while Thomas Haden Church's Sandman remains one of the trilogy's most sympathetic characters. (His origin sequence is still among the most beautiful moments in any Spider-Man movie.) The film, unfortunately, lacks the same weight as its predecessor, largely due to juggling too many villains and conflicting studio demands, yet it contains flashes of the emotional storytelling that made Raimi's trilogy so beloved.

4 Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

It's easy to dismiss No Way Home as an exercise in nostalgia, but that overlooks why its biggest moments resonate so deeply with fans. Bringing together Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland could have been little more than fan service, yet the film uses that reunion to give each Spider-Man a measure of closure. Garfield's Peter finally gets to save someone after failing Gwen Stacy, Maguire returns as a wiser version of his Spider-Man, and Holland's Peter suffers the greatest loss of his life before choosing the lonely path that defines the character. The returning villains, especially Alfred Molina's Doctor Octopus and Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin, only strengthen a story that understands Spider-Man has always been defined more by sacrifice than spectacle. Filmed in the midst of the pandemic, No Way Home suffers most from a rash of poor visual effects due to being filmed almost entirely against green screens. Many of its environments lack the texture and physicality of earlier Spider-Man films, making some action sequences feel noticeably more artificial.

3 Spider-Man (2002)

Without Sam Raimi's Spider-Man, modern superhero cinema might look very different. Long before shared universes became the norm, Raimi proved comic book movies could embrace their colorful roots without sacrificing emotional sincerity. Maguire's Peter Parker perfectly captured the character's quiet awkwardness, while Dafoe delivered an unforgettable Green Goblin whose manic performance still ranks among Marvel's greatest villains. Sure, the visual effects occasionally show their age, and nobody in Peter's high school looks remotely like a teenager, but those quirks have only become part of the film's enduring charm. Above all else, Spider-Man established the blueprint every live-action adaptation has followed since.

2 Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026)

After the ending of No Way Home, Holland's Spider-Man needed more than another multiverse adventure — he needed to rediscover who Peter Parker is when nobody remembers his name. Brand New Day answers that challenge with confidence. Director Destin Daniel Cretton crafts a surprisingly grounded version of New York that finally feels alive with Marvel heroes, like Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Punisher (Jon Bernthal), without ever overshadowing Spidey himself. Every supporting character serves Peter's journey rather than distracting from it, resulting in a tightly paced narrative that expands the MCU while remaining remarkably personal. It's a delicate balancing act that many recent Marvel films (and Spider-Man films themselves) have struggled to achieve, but Brand New Day pulls it off in stride, delivering one of the strongest and most emotionally satisfying interpretations of Spider-Man ever put to screen.

1 Spider-Man 2 (2004)

More than two decades later, Spider-Man 2 is still the gold standard for live-action web-slinger features and one of the greatest superhero films ever made. Molina's Doctor Octopus isn't simply another tasteful villain, but Peter Parker's own mentor, role model, and father figure, who inevitably becomes the very person he must fight to save the city. That emotional conflict runs alongside Peter's own struggle to balance responsibility, love, friendship, and the impossible demands of being Spider-Man while in the throes of college life. Raimi understands that Peter's greatest battles aren't fought with webs or fists, but with the sacrifices he makes every day simply to help others. Combined with unforgettable moments like the train sequence and Doc Ock's ultimate redemption, Spider-Man 2 achieves something few superhero movies ever have. It tells an extraordinary story about an ordinary young man trying to do the right thing, and over 20 years later, it still stands shoulder to shoulder with The Dark Knight as one of the genre's defining achievements.